Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 48 posts

Re: Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

#31

Post by animesh »

austin-cheney wrote: post #26
jaredcwhite wrote: post #22

I quit Facebook in 2017. I quit Instagram in 2019. I quit Twitter in 2022. I quit Reddit in 2023. I'm primarily on Mastodon and Threads at this point, but I soft-quit Threads recently because it was bad for my mental health. I just don't think commercial social media is compatible with my brain at this point. The algorithms pull you in at first, but then they go sideways and you're addicted to garbage. It's like tabl…

I quit Facebook and Twitter around 2010 or so. I quit Reddit maybe around 2018. I quit IRC in 2023. I haven't deleted my account on LinkedIn yet, but I haven't updated anything on there for a while now. Reddit felt like an echo chamber. My biggest learning from combining social media and professional programmers is that in general most developers (90% or more) cannot measure things at all. Its the same in the real wo…

I did the same thing regarding Facebook and Twitter. Reddit largely around same time except for the occasional visit to some smaller subreddits. I would be interested to learn why you have quit IRC? I am thinking to become active in IRC channels sometime next year. Has something changed too big on there recently?

Re: Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

#32

Post by _v9nk »

Desafinado wrote: post #19
purple-leafy wrote: post #15

I already have if you don’t count HN. You don’t need social media, and I think less of people who need the acceptance of others. I quit all social media about 10 years ago, when I wasn’t yet 20. I don’t watch or read the news either. People are sheep though, so they thought that odd. But I’m not a sheep. You soon learn the important relationships, and the pointless ones. I have nothing but HN. I don’t even have a Lin…

Social media has it's uses. For most people it's a way to kill time, which they usually have too much of. I don't see anything wrong with that. Like you I find a lot of what people share boring, but I have had a few nice friendships made possible by social media. Without it we would have lost touch a decade ago. And there are many others who are only a click away because of it. Maybe some of these relationships aren'…

> To me the real enlightened view is to use social media as a tool while not letting it consume your life.

That's where the trouble starts. You don't have control when you use social media. By its very nature, it draws you in like a vortex. You can't get out.

Re: Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

#33

Post by austin-cheney »

animesh wrote: post #31
austin-cheney wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quit Facebook and Twitter around 2010 or so. I quit Reddit maybe around 2018. I quit IRC in 2023. I haven't deleted my account on LinkedIn yet, but I haven't updated anything on there for a while now. Reddit felt like an echo chamber. My biggest learning from combining social media and professional programmers is that in general most developers (90% or more) cannot measure things at all. Its the same in the real wo…

I did the same thing regarding Facebook and Twitter. Reddit largely around same time except for the occasional visit to some smaller subreddits. I would be interested to learn why you have quit IRC? I am thinking to become active in IRC channels sometime next year. Has something changed too big on there recently?

I spent most my time on IRC in JavaScript related channels. When I switched careers I chose to stop talking about JavaScript in my off hours. I just wanted to leave a bunch of nonsense behind and focus on other things.

Re: Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

#34

Post by nicbou »

Gooblebrai wrote: post #10
nicbou wrote: post #8

I never quit, but I dramatically reduced my usage, and generally changed how I interact with others online. I am down to two subreddits that I visit by typing the URL in the address bar, and the orange site we all love. The other websites are write-only dumps where I interact with my website’s (very kind) followers. I don’t follow anyone and my feeds are literally empty. I use a Firefox extension to redirect from the…

Interesting. You never had the need of doing social media marketing? I often wonder how would healthy relationship with social media look like if that kind of marketing is needed.

They are separate jobs done on separate accounts.

My business profile has an audience that I interact with. However I only go there if I have something to post, or to reply to interactions. Hence “write-only”.

I am not an influencer. My face is not on the internet. I am just a guy running a locally popular website, and I use social media to talk about the stuff I am working on for this website.

Re: Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

#35

Post by Desafinado »

_v9nk wrote: post #32
Desafinado wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media has it's uses. For most people it's a way to kill time, which they usually have too much of. I don't see anything wrong with that. Like you I find a lot of what people share boring, but I have had a few nice friendships made possible by social media. Without it we would have lost touch a decade ago. And there are many others who are only a click away because of it. Maybe some of these relationships aren'…

> To me the real enlightened view is to use social media as a tool while not letting it consume your life. That's where the trouble starts. You don't have control when you use social media. By its very nature, it draws you in like a vortex. You can't get out.

I think it can depend on who's using it.

Personally, I live in a city with no natural community. I'm married but have no family here and only a couple acquaintances. I tried to quit Instagram a couple years ago but just ended up more isolated than I already am.

I think this type of situation is common for a lot of people. Social media is the glue that ties us to friends in distant places, which is why it's successful.

If you have actual community available to you quitting is much more doable.

Re: Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

#36

Post by _v9nk »

Desafinado wrote: post #35
_v9nk wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To me the real enlightened view is to use social media as a tool while not letting it consume your life. That's where the trouble starts. You don't have control when you use social media. By its very nature, it draws you in like a vortex. You can't get out.

I think it can depend on who's using it. Personally, I live in a city with no natural community. I'm married but have no family here and only a couple acquaintances. I tried to quit Instagram a couple years ago but just ended up more isolated than I already am. I think this type of situation is common for a lot of people. Social media is the glue that ties us to friends in distant places, which is why it's successful…

I agree with you at some point.

Re: Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

#38

Post by pirates »

batch12 wrote: post #25
boznz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hot tip. also delete and create a new HN account often then you're not invested in the replies to your posts or how many upvotes you get

The points I get, but why replies? I thought the point of this site was conversation.

In addition I feel like an account here having a long history/high karma is somewhat unique versus other sites since some actions and features aren’t usable until you’ve passed certain thresholds. To me at least this is interesting to think about, but I also don’t have accounts in any platform besides this one, so I don’t know for certain what other places do.

Re: Have You Wanted to Quit Social Media?

#39

Post by derelicta »

I kind of did. I used to be fairly active on the Fediverse, until I got to join a small community on Discord. Now it feels like a Stammtisch, so a place I can just hop in and hang out with folks I know and I like. Sometimes we even get to actually meet irl, so it's real nice. I still have some "read-only" feeds like twitter, but that's about it.
Post reply on HN